Junior doctors and students of the North Bengal Medical College & Hospital (NBMCH) on Wednesday resorted to protests and confined the principal and some others throughout the day, demanding exemplary steps against Avik Dey, a first-year PGT at SSKM Hospital in Calcutta.

Dey, who was allegedly present at the crime scene of the heinous rape and murder of the junior doctor in RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in Calcutta, has also been accused of manipulating exams at NBMCH.

“We being registered doctors of West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC), demand Avik Dey’s removal from the ethical and penal committee of WBMC with immediate effect,” said Arijit Saha,
general secretary of the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) at the NBMCH.

After the RG Kar incident, it was alleged that Dey had reached the crime scene with some others. He, however, had denied it.

Despite his denial, the state branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) maintained that he was present at the spot after the crime. Trinankur Bhattacharya, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad president, suspended Dey from the students’ front because of the allegation.

Dey, an alumnus of NBMCH, however, is continuing in his position in SSKM. Saha also accused Dey of introducing “threat culture” on campus and manipulating exams in NBMCH.

On Thursday, the drama unfolded in NBMCH around 1pm, soon after Gautam Deb, the mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), who is also the chairman of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti of the hospital, finished a meeting with members of the committee.

Junior doctors and students accompanied by some senior doctors walked into the chamber of NBMCH principal Indrajit Saha and resorted to a demonstration. Deb was seated there with some others.

The protesters demanded that a probe should be initiated against Dey and that he should be debarred from entering NBMCH (he is a former student of the institution) with immediate effect.

“Many of us were threatened by him and his associates if we objected to their illegal moves and highhandedness. They would insist all of us fall in line. He should also be removed from the
college council board of NBMCH,” said Rohan Mukherjee, the treasurer of RDA’s NBMCH branch.

The students demanded an urgent meeting of the college council where students, departmental heads, junior doctors and others should be present to discuss and decide on the charges.

“Along with Avik Dey, others like (aides) Shaheen Sarkar and Sohom Mondal were also involved in such malpractices and threatened others,” added Mukherjee. Sarkar is a house staff in the general surgery department while Mondal is an intern at NBMCH, sources said.

None of them could be contacted by this newspaper.

At around 1.30 pm, Deb, the mayor, left NBMCH. “I am simply the chairman of the RKS and have no business here,” he said, while leaving, and provided his contact number to protesters, asking them to contact him if needed.

The protests continued, prompting Sandip Sengupta, the dean of student affairs, to reach Saha’s chamber and talk to the students and junior doctors. His intervention, however, fuelled the fire. Protesters resorted to sloganeering, demanding Sengupta reveal the names of those who had been intervening in the exam process.

Sengupta, flummoxed over their demand, eventually admitted that Dey used to make phone calls to him.

“During exams, he used to make phone calls repeatedly and I was forced to get out of the examination hall. Shaheen Sarkar had also called me a couple of times. But I have never allowed any malpractice in exams,” said Sengupta.

Protesters kept him confined till 8pm, demanding his resignation.

Saha, the principal, said he received a complaint from the students about some people on various issues. “We will forward it to our higher authorities,” he said.

In north Bengal, NBMCH is the largest state-run medical college and referral hospital. Located in Susrutanagar on the outskirts of Siliguri, NBMCH has 200 MBBS students and 90-odd MD students passing out from here every year.